The 38th Annual EERS Conference will be convened April 26-28, 2015, returning to its traditional home at the Seaview Resort and Spa in Galloway, NJ. This year’s conference theme is Let’s Get Real: Evaluation Challenges and Solutions, inviting participates to reflect on the evaluation challenges they face. It offers professional evaluators, academics, students, and evaluation consumers a friendly forum to discuss challenges and the strategies they have used (or would use if faced again) to overcome them or mitigate their effects.

NEW - Support EERS Conference Student Participation

EERS takes pride in encouraging the next generation of evaluators by supporting students whose presentation proposals are accepted with stipends, and free or subsidized meal and conference registration fees exceeding $4000 annually. You can now make tax-deductable donations securely through PayPal or with a credit card, with all proceeds going to support costs for student participants. Click the button below to make a one-time $10 donation and thank you for supporting our students!

International Year of Evaluation

2015 has been designated the International Year of Evaluation, intended to advocate and promote evaluation and evidence-based policy making at international, regional, national and local levels. Proposers of sessions for the EERS conference have been asked to consider aligning their content with this initiative.

Presenters

The 2015 conference continues its long history of exceptional presenters, featuring a distinguished group of speakers in addition to continuation of the EERS Invited Authors Program and pre-conference workshops tailored to evaluation professionals. Key guests for this spring's conference include the following:

• Lisbeth Schorr (Keynote Speaker) - Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Social Policy
• Tom Cook (Plenary) - Professor of Sociology, Psychology, and Education and Social Policy; Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research
• Stewart Donaldson (Plenary) - Dean of the School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation (SSSPE) and the School of Community & Global Health (SCGH) at Claremont University

The Eleanor Chelimsky Forum

Now in its 3rd year, the Chelimsky Forum on Evaluation Theory and Practice focuses on the conference theme through the eyes of selected luminaries from the evaluation field. Supported again by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the 2015 Forum’s Plenary Presentation will be delivered by Abe Wandersman. Mary Dixon-Woods will serve as discussant, facilitating an open dialogue with conference participants.

Pre-Conference Workshops

EERS has a long history of providing popular evaluation practitioner workshops immediately prior to the formal opening of the annual conference. This year's pre-conference trainings are listed below, with links to additional information about sessions and presenters.

EERS Conference Sponsors

EERS invites organizations interested in partnering as a conference sponsor to contact Tom Archibald by email. In addition to supporting the practice of evaluation in the northeastern U.S., your company will benefit from exposure to a select group of evaluation professionals on this site and in the conference program. See previous years' conferences for examples.

Five Reasons to Attend EERS 2015

1. Networking: Share expertise, learn and network in an intimate and welcoming atmosphere.
2. Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue: Interact with evaluators and users of evaluation from a broad spectrum of disciplines and organizations.
3. Professional Development: Gain knowledge and learn new skills. Workshops and skill sessions, at various levels, are an integral part of our conference.
4. Inspiration: Feel nurtured and inspired, whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned professional.
5. National Experts: Rub elbows with national evaluation experts.

Conference Materials

Conference materials and presentations are provided below. For those presenting at the conference, please start thinking now about making your materials available. PDF versions of presentation materials to be shared here may not exceed 2MB of file size. Questions about formatting and other considerations can be directed by email to Kirk Knestis.